News Roundup: What Dominion’s Ratepayer Refund Really Means, Offshore Wind in Virginia, Using Geothermal Systems for Heating and Cooling

July 11, 2018 By Editor

Dominion Will Give Customers A Refund This Summer, Then Bills Will Go Up

Dominion customers can expect an average refund of $24.66 on their monthly electricity bills this summer. At the same time, due to a number of increasing costs, consumers also can expect their bill to go up an average of $4.59 per month. This means that refund will be used up in six months’ time. The new Grid Modernization and Security Act complicates the future of rates even further. The final bill does not contain the controversial “double-dip” provision, but the bill still permits Dominion to pass on certain costs to the consumer. At this point, those costs are unknown. Read the story here.

Does Virginia Have The Pieces In Place For An Offshore Wind Boom?

Many agree that Virginia has the potential to develop a robust offshore wind industry, but the Commonwealth lags far behind other states in developing these types of projects. Despite that, groups like the Sierra Club are optimistic that Virginia is on the cusp of beginning to develop this resource in a significant way. For example, Dominion Energy is in the process of developing a 12-megawatt offshore project that is set to come online in 2020. It also has leased 112,800 acres, which has the potential to hold a massive wind energy project in the coming years, off the coast of Virginia. Read the story here.

Virginia Has A Massive Energy Source Sitting Just Offshore

In an effort to have a better understanding of the value of offshore wind, the Berkeley Lab created a report that attempts to quantify what the value of offshore wind would have been had it been built on the East Coast of the United States from 2007 to 2016. This study took into consideration renewable energy credit prices, weather, wholesale electricity market outcomes, and capacity, among other factors, when calculating the market value. Unsurprisingly, the Northeast had top marks, with values averaging about $100/MWh. Virginia did not lag far behind that. To find out more about the report and calculations for Virginia, read the story here.

Alphabet Spinoff Wants To Turn Your Lawn Into Your Air Conditioner

Dandelion, an invention of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is offering a new way to heat and cool homes. The Dandelion Air geothermal system will use the ground’s energy to maintain a consistent building temperature. In the winter, it moves heat from the ground into the house, and in the summer, it moves heat from the house into the ground. The company claims that the system is four times more efficient than furnaces and twice as efficient as traditional air conditioning systems. The installation costs are high, but consumers could expect significant savings over time. Read the story here.

News Roundup: New Technology Could Transform Solar Industry, Pipelines’ Permits Suspended, More Solar Projects Announced and Completed

June 6, 2018 By Editor

Inside the New Technology That Could Transform the Solar Power Industry
Solar generation will increase 16-fold between 2016 and 2040, according to data from the International Energy Agency, and new research into a class of materials known as perovskites underway in U.S. government labs and other facilities around the world promises to accelerate those projections. If they make it from the lab to commercial use, perovskites could dramatically change the market for the renewable energy source, offering potential for panels to capture energy from virtually any surface facing the sun. The primary reasons why perovskites potentially serve as a superior alternative to traditional solar cells include their flexibility and production ease: they can be painted or sprayed on a surface from an ink solution or churned out of a printer like a newspaper. That flexibility means they can be attached virtually anywhere. Read the story here.

Mountain Valley Pipeline Permit Suspended; Public Comment about Permit for it and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to be Extended after Website Failure
Due to a crash of the website for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), a national permit for a Virginia pipeline has been indefinitely suspended and the permit for it and a second pipeline will be extended. Virginia’s State Water Control Board was going to accept public comment until May 30 on the same permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline and Dominion Energy-led Atlantic Coast Pipeline after hearing arguments that the permit doesn’t adequately protect Virginia waterways. But, because of the Virginia DEQ website crash, the public comment deadline has been extended. According to DEQ spokeswoman Ann Regn, no data was lost and the comment period will be extended by however many days the website is down. Comments can be made to: NWP12InfoOnMVP@deq.virginia.gov and
NWP12InfoOnACP@deq.virginia.gov. Read the story here.

Solar Projects Commissioned in Virginia
Two new solar centers – the Palmer and Martin Solar Centers – are set to open in central Virginia, along the I-64 corridor. They will total 10 MW AC and will generate enough clean energy to power approximately 1,200 homes annually. Together, the projects combine to make up the largest solar project in the state for an electric distribution cooperative and are being constructed by Coronal Energy, an independent power producer focused on utility-scale solar and storage projects, and Central Virginia Electric Cooperative (CVEC), a member-owned electric distribution cooperative, celebrated the commissioning of the Palmer and Martin solar centers in central Virginia. CVEC will purchase the projects’ output under a 25-year power purchase agreement and plans to offer 4 MW of the 10 MW generated by the solar centers to its members as a part of Solar Share, its community solar program, while Coronal Energy will own and operate the facilities. Read the story here.

WGL Energy, Sol Systems complete 6-MW array in Virginia
Kentuck Solar Project stakeholders, working in conjunction with WGL Energy Systems and Sol Systems, announced the completion of a 6-MW alternating current system in Ringgold, Virginia. The $10-million project is located on 76 acres, created approximately 80 jobs during construction and boosted the local economy. The solar project will provide enough electricity to power more than 1,000 homes annually and will cover 1.5% of the city of Danville’s power needs, thereby establishing long-term certainty for the utility in the city of Danville. WGL Energy serves as owner and operator of the project and Sol Systems oversaw the design, construction and financing of the system. The City of Danville Department of Utilities is purchasing the energy from the fully installed photovoltaic (PV) solar facility for the next 25 years to diversify its energy and capacity portfolio. Read the story here.

2018 Solar Report

January 25, 2018 By Margaret Brown

Virginia now has 290.89 megawatts (MWs) of solar installed, which represents approximately .037% of its total electricity generated. This is an increase from last year’s total of 192.4 MW, and represents the state moving more than half of the way towards Dominion’s goal of building facilities to generate 400 MW of solar energy by 2020. Despite the increase in MW, Virginia’s national ranking for solar and renewable energy slipped from 17th in 2016 to 20th in 2017. This indicates that other states have embraced this highly competitive industry and are reaping its rewards, while Virginia has lagged behind. Our state also ranks 13th in growth projections for the next five years — an unnecessarily low ranking, given Virginia’s climate and access to both ocean and mountain wind.

Download the
2018 Solar Usage Report Now

Resilient Virginia

July 6, 2017 By Editor

July 7 deadline! 2017 Resilient Virginia Conference Early Registration

Take action to join colleagues from local and state government, emergency management, business, the military, and education to learn, network, and gain insights into innovative resiliency initiatives and resources.

SPONSOR INFO

EXHIBITOR INFO

You’ll be inspired by state and local resiliency leaders.

Virginia’s resiliency initiatives — Port risk assessments, communications interoperability, and more;
Extensive recovery and resiliency lessons learned from Louisiana and Colorado;
How Hampton Roads and coastal communities are tackling sea level rise, flooding, and infrastructure challenges;
Urban initiatives that address stormwater and reducing their carbon footprint; and
Rural initiatives to plan for disasters such as wildfires.

If you are a business, whether urban or rural, you’ll gain understanding about:

The financial rationale for including resiliency in your risk management plan;
How climate variability affects productivity and economics of farms and forest management;
Entrepreneurial opportunities focused on demand for new technologies to address environmental challenges and security risks; and
Protecting our food-producing lands and bringing new economic opportunities to rural areas.

Take away these valuable resources:

How to start up resiliency planning using NIST’s “Community Resilience Planning Guide for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems”;
What is the 100 Resilient Cities planning process that has set Norfolk on a successful path of living with water;
A Resiliency Planning Checklist from Resilient Virginia, VML, and VACO; and
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 22301 Business Continuity Management Systems Standard.

Take action to become a resiliency leader in your community. Come to learn and network, leave with your own resiliency toolkit!

We appreciate the support of our Sponsors!

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And Our Media Partners

Resilient Virginia’s mission is to accelerate community resiliency planning across the diverse geographic regions of the Commonwealth. Our website and activities provide resources to inform, educate, and activate communities to develop their own resiliency initiatives. Contact: Annette Osso, Managing Director, Resilient Virginia (osso@resilientvirginia.org, 703-486-2966). Website: resilientvirginia.org.

Why Virginia’s Monopoly Utilities Are Trying to Stop Customer-Owned Solar

September 19, 2016 By Editor

Re-published with permission from Virginia Solar United Neighborhoods (VA SUN)

The recent growth of solar electricity generation has been nothing short of spectacular. Nationally, solar photovoltaic (PV) installation costs have fallen by more than 70% in the past decade. The total capacity of installed solar has tripled since 2010. The solar industry now employs more people than the coal and gas extraction industries. Solar now accounts for the majority of new electricity generation capacity additions. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have propelled this solar momentum, installing solar arrays on their own homes and businesses.

Virginians are no different in seeing the value of producing local energy with solar. In the last three years alone, our small non-profit, VA SUN, has directly facilitated more than 400 installations. This has generated more than $8 million dollars in retail solar sales for local Virginia contractors.

This grassroots solar momentum combined with dramatic system cost declines has Virginia’s electric utilities worried.

Why is rooftop solar a threat to monopoly utilities?

Solar panels are a distributed power source. This means they create electricity at or near the source of use. This is counter to traditional electricity generation which occurs at large, centralized locations and is then transmitted long distances to the point of end use. The emergence of solar PV as a cost effective and easy to maintain ‘generator’ has enabled Virginians to become their own energy suppliers.

While solar means increased energy freedom, resilience and local job creation for Virginians, utilities see this only as lost revenue.

Electric utilities typically generate income two ways. They sell electricity to customers or they build electric grid infrastructure, such as power plants and transmission lines. As Virginians install more solar, they purchase less electricity from their utilities and reduce the need for costly investment in new power plants and transmission lines.
Increased solar adoption is good for all utility customers, as we are the ones who pay for rising energy costs and investments in new grid infrastructure. This introduces competition and cuts into utility profit margins. Virginia’s two largest utilities, Dominion and Appalachian Power are investor owned utilities, meaning they are managed as private, for profit entities. While they are governed as ‘regulated monopolies’ by the Virginia State Corporation Commission, their primary purpose is to generate revenue for shareholders.

Customer-owned, ‘rooftop’ solar reduces revenue to utility shareholders by reducing demand for their products (electricity and power infrastructure). This is particularly concerning to utilities since they have seen overall growth in electric demand remain flat and even decline since 2009. This flat demand is due to energy efficiency and decreased industrial activity. Solar is poised to lower electricity demand from utilities further. Utilities are trying to hold on to their profit margins by blocking solar’s growth.

VA SUN is a project of the Community Power Network (CPN).

Enjoy Earth Day! Learn How to Make Changes for Virginia and the Planet.

April 21, 2016 By Editor

Virginia Energy posters created by students from Monroe Technology Center in Loudoun County.

350 Loudoun and several other organizations celebrated Earth Day early with a gathering focused on educating area citizens about climate change and sharing ways that each of us can make small changes to reduce our carbon footprint.

Powered by Facts attended the event atCorcoran Brewing in Purcellville hoping to spread the word that we all need to continue to let Virginia legislators know that renewable energy is a priority. Even though Commonwealth Senators and Delegates are not in session, they want to hear from their constituents about the things that are important to them.

SB 779, HB 1285 and HB 1286 were shelved for further discussion, so making your voice heard about solar and renewable energy during the legislative “off season” ismore important than ever.

A few things that resonated with the crowd at Sunday’s event:

Virginia produces less solar energy than Georgia and North Carolina (and approximately 35 other states)!
SB 779 could help Virginia farmers “harvest” the sun to create additional revenue streams.
Passage of HB 444, which requires electric utilities in the Commonwealth to notify customers every quarter about how they can purchase renewable energy, was a small, but important step in the right direction.

Powered by Facts’ interns from C.S. Monroe Technology Center in Leesburg created a flyer with the names and contact information for Northern Virginia legislators:<image001.jpg>

We hope they – and you – will take a few minutes to reach out to your Delegate and Senator to show support for solar and other renewable energy options in the Commonwealth.

We will continue to be at events in the coming months – hopefully further afield – and will let you know where we will be!

Coal Production in Virginia is Declining

December 24, 2015 By Editor

Between 2008 and 2012, the amount of energy produced from coal in Virginia declined by nearly 25 percent. As it declines, so do the jobs needed to support it.

Renewable energy presents the Commonwealth with the opportunity to create good jobs that could help replace lost mining jobs.

Sustainable Energy: Myth vs. Fact